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Did you know ?

Did you know ?

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Supermarkets are organized taking into consideration customers’ psychology

You went to a supermarket to buy a particular brand of milk available only there. However, by the time you reached the billing counter, your shopping basket was full. Not with several cartons of your favourite milk, but a host of other products. Your child nudged you to buy a few packets of noodles, a little ahead you bought a cereal not easily available at the local kirana shop and on the last shelf you found a nice suit cover. By this time, you felt exhausted and grabbed a bottle of juice and a chocolate bar for your nagging kid, while remembering to pick up the milk you had originally come for.

The store arrangement of supermarkets is such that you spend more time looking for what you want to buy. Studies have proved that the more time you spend, the more you are likely to spend.

Store arrangement

See more, buy more and, ultimately, pay more—that seems the idea behind store arrangement.

Most essential items such as milk and dairy products are placed at the extreme end of the shop. Moreover, products that are most in demand are usually kept at the middle of the aisle. This means that whichever way you enter, you have to cross a number of products before you get to these. The idea is that you navigate through aisles and are encouraged to pick a few things on your way impulsively.

Then, products that complement each other are placed close to each other. So pasta and pasta sauces will be placed in such a way that if you pick one, you can’t miss the other and would be tempted to pick up that too.

Customers usually get impatient while waiting in the queue to make payments. Most supermarkets have carts with chocolates and other low-priced utility items, which you are likely to pick up, on both sides of the billing counter. So, while standing in the queue, you may notice a pack of new plastic bottles and may suddenly remember that your fridge bottles need replacement.

Consumer Senses

The smell of freshly baked bread induces hunger and shoppers tend to buy more. Some supermarkets even use the essence of freshly baked bread as the bread on the shelves may not always be just out of the oven. So if you went to the food section to buy jam, the smell may entice you to buy two kinds of bread and a freshly baked cake along with it.

Price Impressions

The more expensive products are placed at the beginning, so as you browse more and find products with lower prices, you will feel you have saved money by not buying the expensive ones.

Products at the eye level are usually the most expensive or those that offer the best commission. Look on the shelves above and below for better deals.

-Harshada Karnik

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Published: 09 Jan 2011, 08:57 PM IST
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